Foreign Stocks, Gold and 6 Swoon Scenarios

The argument for holding non-U.S. stocks despite their underperformance. And the case for a market correction.

It would be easy to understand why U.S. investors simply avoided foreign stocks without losing any sleep.

Over the past two years, for example, the return of the SPDR S&P 500 (ticker: SPY), the exchange-traded fund that tracks the Standard & Poor's 500, has more than doubled that of the ETF that tracks the MSCI World ex-USA Index (the...